Skipstone Winery

We visited Skipstone winery this past fall and were really impressed with both the winery and the wine.  This organically-farmed winery is tucked away in the hills of Alexander Valley on a gorgeous piece of land.  They make almost exclusively Cabernet.  We were given a tour by Amy who was very knowledgeable and had gone to the trouble to set up a beautiful table under a willow tree for us to taste the wines.  We tried a flight of "Oliver's Blend" Cabernets from 2005 - 2009.  My favorite ended up being the 2006 but all of them are wonderful!  Amy had a spread of cheeses, crackers, bread, etc to pair with the wines.  We also tried their housemade olive oil which has a wonderful rich herbal flavor to it.  If you plan to visit, make a reservation with at least a couple of days notice (it's small operation) and make sure you have a good map since the winery is a bit hidden.

Phil and I opened a bottle of the 2006 Cab last night.  Awesome!  Tastes like black cherries and plum. 

Kathryn Kennedy's Lateral (Napa, 2008) - Bordeaux blend

I picked this up at K & L wines the other day, it was one of their staff picks.  The Lateral is a blend of mostly Cabernet Franc and Merlot, made entirely with Napa Valley fruit.  My best description of the flavors are herbaceous and pipe tobacco-ey.  We drank it with a bolognese and it was VERY tasty!  It was $32 a bottle.

If you haven't been to K & L before, I highly recommend it.  The staff are very knowledgeable and the "staff picks" are well-described and offered at a variety of prices.  I usually stop by here when I am after some good french or italian wines and have no idea what I am looking for.  

Rock Wall Winery

I recently discovered Rock Wall winery which is conveniently located just across the Bay Bridge in Alameda.  They make a wonderfully fruity but not-to-sweet Zinfandel and the Obsidian which I promptly bough 6 bottles of at only $25 a pop!  The Obsidian is a red blend of 50% Zinfandel and 50% Petite Sirah.  It is a full-bodied wine with flavors of blueberry and all sorts of other dark fruit.  Delicious!  We had a bottle of this with steak and potatoes the other night which seemed to work well together.

Rock Wall also produces sparkling white, chardonnay, cabernet and dessert wine.  The Alameda tasting room is situated in an old airport hangar next door to St. George's Spirits.  The tasting room staff was lovely and the city-view from the back of their building on a clear day is outstanding.